CHAPTER 47

I DO NOT OWN SKIP BEAT.

Devilish yoshiki Nakamura does.

A new ping sounded and Ren who was on break casted a wicked look at his phone. Of course, he wanted nothing more than to go check it out. The past few days had been both wonderful and a living hell.

The reason?

Pictures. Evil pictures taken by a little demon.

Although what the pictures portrayed was not bad, it added to the new amount of things that tortured his stupid enamoured soul.

Kyoko had been back in America with Maria for five days already and seemed to be having a good time with her. But the pictures welcomed by his phone were in many ways already too much for him. And in others, by far too meager to satiate his appetite. Where was the bombing of promised images? The pictures of what her flat looked like he was owed to receive?

No such a thing.

He had, in all and for all got five pictures. That's it. And he had already secured his side of his bargain by making Kyoko promise she would try to come to the mask ball.

So where was the remainder? All the other little peaks due.

He stopped his thought with a start. He wanted to laugh at his own turmoil. Here he was, sulking, over something promised by a preteen most likely just too busy having fun to think about anything else and he was holding a grudge? So stupid.

He grabbed his phone, decided to not care anymore about this. No matter his feelings, he shouldn't have made a deal with a child anyway. And he still felt guilty about the risk of intruding Kyoko's privacy. And he felt even worse about what those pictures made him think about. Dreaming was becoming a risky move recently. And with the fresh memories provided by the recent moments with her, his mind had it a bit too easily with what it was doing. And here goes situations picked and remixed in whatever his mind decided to roll while he is sleeping. He was subscribed to cold showers and thinking about distasteful images every morning recently. When he had even the time to resolve the matter once awoken. Some times, his body had already found its relief and he was divided between an irrational shame over the all thing and the knowledge it was normal. He was no monk. And he was very much attracted by the object of his dreams whether in fantasies or reality. Still.

There was now paint in Ren's dreams and so much more colours. But, no doubt, it wasn't the focus of those. Paints were just the new real details added to his phantasmagoria dreams. There were no clothes in his dreams. There was a lot more attention directed at this particular point. Or rather on the motion of shedding those. Of them pooling at two pair of bare feet. Of the slow precipitation of raced touches. Of deep scratches burning his back with an agonizing pleasure. Of the texture of skin under his palms. Smoothness to the humid thickness of paint spread by his very sturdy fingers on her spine, on her belly, on…

He pulled out of his fantasy when he realized he was becoming hard and grabbed a bottle of water from his bag when his phone pinged again in his hand.

He unlocked his phone and saw a few messages stating Maria's name on it. He groaned internally. He would look at those once he would be settle back in his flat. Else, he wouldn't be able to act the sad angry scene that he was supposed to complete today.

Later on that day, half past ten pm.

Ren was finally back inside his apartment. Unbuckling, he laid down on his couch for a little while before taking hold of his phone.

"Hi Ren-san. So, after a full observation during all the afternoon, I'm here to give you my report, his eyes read, I spent today with onee-sama and met a few friends of hers. They were all very nice with me, though maybe is because I'm the younger friend of onee-sama. Kayla is very funny and loves to pester onee-sama very much"

A second message followed.

"I met five friends of one-sama beside Kayla. Lane, Mei, Kyle, Luke and Jake. Of course I don't know them very much but here are the ones you should be warry of. All the males. Luke and Jake are clearly making eyes at her and Kyle is oddly tactile with her and for a weirder reason, she's letting him. I'm sending you below pictures of all of them"

Ren wanted to scold Maria for taking pictures of strangers without their express permission but his interest for Kyoko's friends and a new gnawing jealousy prevented him of taking action and he scrolled down further.

"This is Jake" was the above note of a muscular bulky black man with warm yellow eyes, a square jaw and welcoming features sporting a soft expression looking at something out of the camera angle.

A lean gnarled but fit man followed. Lighter skin this time, he had black hair and was showing some kind of anguish expression though he was stretching a smile too. "This is Luke, he's kind of edgy but also very charming and kind. He's head over heels over Onee-sama"

Ren clenched his jaw with annoyance. Jake was on board too, he could have bet on it. As if it wasn't enough to fight concurrence here. Unknown men were spending time Kyoko, being close to her and it seems it had been the case for a while now. Not that she couldn't spend time with friends. Ren just wished they were blind and ignorant of the treasure they had in front of them or he could also rule over his jealousy better. But it didn't look like it was happening any time soon.

He looked at the last picture and nearly broke his phone so much he was clamping his hand around. The poor thing creaked a bit under the strength applied but he paid no care to it.

On the last picture, a thin man not as dense and not as sinewy as the other too but still in very good shape was appearing, light brown hair and grey eyes illuminating his carefree smiling face. He was also circling Kyoko's shoulders with his arm and she was laughing. "This is Kyle, Maria was messaging, He's very close to Kyoko, I guess you could say he's your biggest adversary right now, Ren-sama. Kisses. Sleep well. Maria"

An unfortunate sandbag ended up in the trash that night.

As the weeks went by, Maria returned and the end of the year was soon on the horizon.

Kyoko was still not sure that she would manage to come to the ball even if she had assured them that she would do her best to make it. However, content with the fact that she answered him without complaint when he called and that they could chat regularly, Ren did not complain. He knew she would be in the same country soon enough.

The 24th in the morning, day of the ball.

Hushed steps advance, feminine gait, alongside the snapping heels of a man's boots on the sterile cement flooring. A shiver runs through her and she rubs her arms weakly in a feeble attempt to reinvigorate the frozen limbs. She clenched her fists, squeeze the eyelids shut as she follows the guardian blindly. Very old, really worn out tears run down her cheeks. She wiped them with an angry shoulder rub.

How much time had passed, how could she still feel anything?

So, failing to be able to feel nothing, she opted for anger. It would keep her warm and keep her senses alert.

Glares, snickers and luscious looks.

Nausea rose in her and she opened her mouth to breath. In and out. In and out. Hyperventilating wasn't helping the matter but she couldn't help it.

The man besides her threw a worried sad look at her and she asked for a minute.

They resumed moving soon when she nodded at the man to say she had calmed. Which was half true. She was making work her lungs at least and breathing like you are supposed to again. And standing her ground as they moved forward.

There was nothing she desired at this instant more than running away from this place. But she was set on not backing away. She needed this. No matter how awful it was.

She stumbled a bit, catching herself at the last minute. She felt kind of dizzy, like she was drunk. The sensations in her legs seemed numb. Like they were asleep or she was unconscious and dreaming she was walking.

Cold sweat drenched her under-shirt in her back as they arrive and she clamped her lips in a tight line.

A door bar gate grated on the ground in a piercing sound as it slide to open the way.

She passed by the guardian and laid a hand on the chair back but she didn't sit. The man in the cell vaguely glanced at her then snorted, the eyes dead.

Kyoko didn't say anything to him. She just looked. But it wasn't just a glare. Nothing could describe how murderous her eyes were as they stared at him. It was beyond fury.

She observed the defeated appearance, the grassy hair, the lack of life and care in his overall being. She couldn't comprehend how the day where she was overpowered by the weak excuse of a man came.

But she couldn't resolve to talk to him. It wasn't about the trash. It was about her and getting over it. Because she could, that was one thing she would be able and was already doing for a while. But she wasn't sure she would ever able to forgive.

The dirty appearance turned around to fixate the wall again at some point and she closed her eyes. Nothing was here. She didn't know why she expected she would find something. She never even thought he would give a semblance of apologize.

It was not worth her time. Her anger vanished, she just felt stupid and empty for coming. And to horrified surprise she also felt some sort of pity for the dude. He was bound to live the rest of his life here, thanks to the president, because he hadn't been human enough, sensitive enough, educated enough maybe, to stop. The others too she supposed.

She didn't know what prompted her but she felt like she needed to say that.

"Merry Christmas 'Eve"

She turned around and left the prison.

…

Evening of the 24th , the masked ball has started.

She needed to hurry. The ball had already started and most people had probably arrived. She fed Snow and came back to her bedroom. It was much more comfortable since her furniture had been brought and she would have gladly stay in her new comfy place to read a script or a good book but unfortunately several people had guilt trapped her so she had to cave. Saying things like didn't see you in years, or it's Christmas, or it's my birthday or even worse; I'll be so happy if I could see you. The last straw having been inflicted by Ren himself.

She applied some light mascara and defined her jawline. No more make-up or it would unmask her.

Kyoko snorted at her inside joke. Everyone would be masked after all.

She looked back at her bed where her outfit of tonight laid and grinned. She was pretty proud of her idea. It promised to be interesting.

Now she only had one struggle.

Fingers reached out in front of her and swiftly grabbed white stripes of cloth. That part wasn't as fun.

PS: So, it's been a while, neh…

Sorry. Truly, I apologize for the long delay. As said before my health isn't great and I managed to get me a concussion a few weeks ago. Unlucky me.

As you can see I didn't give up on it, I'm just a bit curse.

Also, I know some people were rejoicing the time that Kyoko and Maria would spend abroad so I also apologize because after hearing that I try to fit in the story as they wanted and found myself a bit blocked by that. I didn't plan to describe all of it, you see. Now, I might evoke it in a little flashback soon but I think you all will prefer if I advance in the story rather than forcing myself to incorporate something that make you wait so much more without any progress.

Finally, a guest asked what was my update schedule. Honestly, I would feel bad to answer to that and then not respect it. I think you can it will always depend of my state. Sometimes I published 5-6 chapters on ten days, sometimes no more for months, sometimes once a week. I can't say. Of course, my objective would be once a week but I know it won't happen most of the times and I don't want to lie. I don't want to tell you I will update at a particular pace and then not respect it.

Also, I know, it's short and it's been a while but don't hate me, just consider it as a "mise-en-bouche"

Kisses.

Mimagfan

AUTHOR OUT